The Lord of the Rings Online is the epitome of the underdog in the MMO genre. In media coverage, the game is barely existent, often either overlooked or even deliberately ignored. Between all the ESOs, WoWs and Final Fantasys, it is supposedly not worth reporting on this niche MMO.
Yes, LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) is in a niche – but one that the game has deliberately created for itself. And as a result, even after almost 15 years, the title is alive and kicking and better than ever, at least if you don’t expect a good MMO. Sounds like a contradiction? Then read on!
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Mistakes of the past
Eru was there, the one. Well, we don’t have to look as far back as in The Silmarillion after all. But in fact, the beginnings of The Lord of the Rings Online (from now on I will allow myself the common abbreviation HdRO) even go back to the last millennium!
Work on Middle-earth Online officially began in 1998, not yet with the current developers, but under the umbrella of Sierra On-Line. But the project ran up against numerous obstacles and did not make any progress. It was not until 2001, when the studio took over Turbine, that progress was made.
The development history of HdRO is interesting and full of twists and turns. But I will only touch on it briefly here to make it clear to you that the technology on which the game is based is really very old. This will become important later on. If you’d like to read a detailed report on the development of the game, let us know in the comments.
The perfect time to get started: In order to lure as many players as possible into the game shortly before the release of the latest expansion “Destiny of Gundabad”, the developer is giving away all quest packs for which you would otherwise have to pay cash. The even larger expansion packs are also reduced to a minimum. So at the moment you can get all the content from the past 15 years for next to nothing.
All you have to do is Enter the coupon code LOTROQUESTS2021 in the game’s ingame store. The code is redeemable until 30 November 2021.
Triumphs of the Present
Over the past 15 years, HdRO has done many things right and no fewer things wrong. All of this has led to it becoming, in my eyes, a worse and worse MMO, but also a better and better game as a result.
That is why the Tolkien adventure is not suitable for every type of player. But if you are as enthusiastic about these three strengths as I am, I can only warmly recommend a visit to Middle-earth:
Middle-earth is huge and looks beautiful
It’s fascinating to see what the developers keep teasing out of the prehistoric technology. Some of the landscapes in HdRO are breathtakingly beautiful, evoke a strong sense of freedom and adventure and, above all, seem real. Whether it’s the green hills of the Shire, the vast plains of Rohan or the gloomy Mordor – it’s hard to believe how detailed and believable this world is.
In many other MMOs I often have the feeling that the world design is only a means to an end. But HdRO Middle-earth, in best Tolkien fashion, feels as if the world has always existed, and the events of the game only take a small part in the grand scheme of things.
The story is not an accessory but a highlight
However, the events have it all: The main story of HdRO can easily compete in the upper league of role-playing games. Although the Ring has been destroyed since 2017 and Sauron is in well-deserved retirement, there is no end to the threats. I even have the impression that the developers really blossom without a strict book corset.
When it comes to the side quests, however, you unsurprisingly mostly have to make do with the genre standard. Kill this, collect that, talk to that. But here, too, the authors always try to make the simple tasks entertaining, exciting, and sometimes even very emotional with little stories.
By the way, HdRO almost had some strong competition. Because no one less than Amazon wanted to develop its own Middle-earth MMORPG. But then nothing came of it
The community is small, but fine
I am sincerely pleased to be able to mention this point. Because the community in HdRO is – apart from the usual exceptions – nice, helpful and eager to talk. There is a lively chat at any time of the day or night, people talk, give advice and look for groups for instances and raids.
Here, too, the game benefits from its niche existence. It doesn’t take long and people know each other. Names in the chat are suddenly no longer strangers, but can be clearly assigned. Compared to the coldness in many other game chats, it warms my heart when I log on in the evening and meet nice like-minded people.
The sense of togetherness is also reinforced by the developers themselves. Regular livestreams in which questions are answered and upcoming content is shown, and very close communication in the forums give the impression that the gap between players and developers is very small.
Future Problems
You can see that HdRO is very close to my heart. The game has accompanied me for 15 years now, and thus almost half of my life, through all moods, successes, failures and strokes of fate. But not everyone forgives so much through their love of Lord of the Rings, which is why I don’t want to conceal the weaknesses either.
Because HdRO doesn’t just have one problem, it has quite a few. And some of them could be a no-go for you when it comes to deciding whether you want to give the game a chance and have fun with it in the long run. Of all things, HdRO fails in many of the core competencies of an MMORPG. Therefore, as a counterbalance, here are three problem areas that could strain your nerves in the future:
The balancing works more badly than well
The first relic from the past that is causing developers more and more headaches today is the game balance. Many background systems were not designed ages ago in such a way that they can be developed well. This also affects the balancing. At the beginning the game is child’s play, in Mordor it is suddenly hard as hell, later it is yawningly easy again, and so on.
The skill system is also functional at best. You distribute the points you receive among three skill trees. This way you get new skills and passive bonuses. But here, too, balancing problems crop up again and again. One class is disproportionately strong, while another is no longer even taken into instances because it is too weak. One update later, the roles are reversed – the developers are only making improvements without addressing the underlying problems and giving the ailing system a lasting overhaul.
The game is not for raid guilds
Whether WoW, Elder Scrolls Online or Final Fantasy 14 – in each of these genre colleagues you should be happier if you are up for really challenging end-game content, which you master together with your guild piece by piece to bag fat loot at the end.
HdRO has instances and large-scale raids, but that is not the focus of the game. More and more, the MMO is turning into a single-player experience in which you can also experience group content with other people. Those who want to play in a group most of the time probably won’t be happy here.
The PvP is a joke
The weaknesses in balancing are also decisive for the fact that PvP in HdRO is hardly fun anymore. To explain: In order to preserve Tolkien lore, your valiant heroic characters cannot fight each other. Therefore, there is an area separated from the rest of the world where some players fight with their normal characters while the other side temporarily takes on an orc, warg or other creature beast.
This sounds cool on paper, but in reality it’s just annoying. The balance is completely out of whack, monster players simply don’t stand a chance against the overpowered characters of the free races. The developers have promised to improve things in the near future in the form of an update for PvP, but it remains to be seen whether it will really help.
Okay, take a breather. In the launch trailer for the expansion War of the Three Peaks, released in 2020, you can get a foretaste of the game’s gripping atmosphere:
The technology…
Probably the biggest weak point of the entire game, which is why I also included the short swing at the development background at the beginning of the article. Let’s not beat about the bush: HdRO is a permanent technical construction site! The engine originates in its basic features from the MMO Asheron’s Call 2, which was released in 2002, and has been modernised again and again, but the foundation is still completely outdated.
The game squeaks and creaks at every turn. When the servers are overloaded, which often happens, you often stand around for a few seconds or run into invisible rubber walls that always set you back a few metres. A sometimes more, sometimes less noticeable lag is omnipresent.
Here, too, the developers are probably doing their best, but the basic framework can no longer be comprehensively revised. There are simply too many systems interconnected for that, which would probably collapse at the slightest misconstruction. So it’s better to leave everything as it is and try spit and duct tape. So you have to forgive a lot to love HdRO as much as I do.
